A quick note:
To celebrate the completion of my latest novel — TRANCE, Inc. — I wanted to release a fun commission project that I wrote for my friend/reader Mercedesbens.
This is the final publication in my five-day release schedule.
Lots of love,
JC
* * *
Allen was passed out on the floor.
In the instant after my best friend's stunning revelation, when my assistant was still staring at Cass with surprise and amazement, I had broken free of my own shock and made my move. Luckily, a fancy home security system wasn't my only line of defense. I'd been training in martial arts and self-defense for almost three years. While Allen was distracted by Cass, I'd made a running dash and battered him away from my girlfriend, snatching the prototype from his limp grasp.
He had struggled, but with his pants around his knees and the advantages of training and speed on my side, I was quickly able to subdue him and strap the goggles around his eyes. After less than thirty seconds, the man's struggles had abated and he'd grown calm as a lamb. A quick instruction to
"sleep long and deeply"
had knocked him out like a hibernating bear.
A traitorous bear.
Turned traitor by my erstwhile friend, who now stood before me with a desperate, haunted expression on her face as I ranted with abandon.
"It doesn't make any sense!" I insisted. "I mean, sure, I've never
met
Georgio. But no one has, not for a while. We've exchanged business emails. And I'm sure we've been on calls before... At least once... Okay, maybe we haven't. But that's not the point!" More than anything, more than the logistics of her grand deception, I just had one thing to say. I gave my best friend a soulrending stare. "Why?"
Cass looked stricken. Not like she didn't know the answer, but like she couldn't figure out the words to explain herself. "I just wanted to stay close to you," she said after a moment, and her voice was small. "We'd been friends since high school, we went to Bradford together, and then I knew that we were going to part ways. You were going to carve your own path, and we both know how you get when you decide to pursue a project. You go all in, you disappear for long stretches of time, and I didn't know... Maybe you would forget about me. But if I stayed close to you, if I moved into your industry, then there was a chance we'd stay in touch. If not, I had no idea if you'd disappear from my life once and for all. But I also couldn't just latch onto whatever business you created. I wasn't going to force myself on you. I would just put myself nearby, and maybe working at cross-purposes I thought that I'd finally be able to get over... everything."
I knew what she meant by her pause. She was thinking of the tension between us, the feelings that we'd never expressed in all our years of friendship but had come so close to acting on tonight in the trailer bed of her truck. I considered my friend, digesting everything she'd told me.
Speaking of disappearing once and for all...
The thought of our rapid return to the house struck me in a flash of panic.
"Wait!" I exclaimed. "What about the police?" I was actually surprised they weren't here already, and equally surprised to realize how glad I was of the fact. I mean, maybe she "deserved" it, but it wasn't like I wanted my best friend to go to prison.
Cass blew out a breath. "You'll have to call them yourself," she said, seeming to steel herself and then meeting my eyes with her level gaze. "When you went inside, I called your security company and reported it as a false alarm." There was an apology in her tone, but not much of one.
"Oh." There was relief in my tone, but neither of us commented on it.
"I know how it must seem..." Cass started to say, but then trailed off. She shook her head. She let me think.
To be honest, I didn't know how it must seem. It seemed like a lot of things. A massive lie and betrayal of trust, for one. But also... I knew how close we'd come to kissing in the back of her truck. I knew how close we'd gotten over the years. And I knew that no matter how much I cared for her, Cass was right. If I went for something, I went all in. Other stuff — dates, for example, or peoples' names — suddenly seemed so small and insignificant when compared to the grand vision. I didn't think I could possibly have lost touch with my best friend. But... Who knew? Maybe I
was
that terrible of a friend.
I glanced down at Janet, who had yet to awaken from the trance-like state that Allen had put her in.
Fuck... she looks so hot...
My girlfriend knelt silently, one hand playing with her dark pink nipples and the other slowly, sensually working her body up towards her third or fourth orgasm. Despite the amount of pleasure she was obviously experiencing, I certainly wasn't going to be winning any awards as a boyfriend, either.
"Why did you recruit...?" My eyes wandered from Janet to the passed-out man on the floor. "I still can't stop thinking of him as Allen," I muttered. "I guess I really am an awful guy."
"Why did I recruit your assistant and turn him into a corporate spy, do you mean?" Cass asked, her voice bitter. "I shouldn't have. And I'm sorry, Braillen. It was McIntosh's idea, and I went with it." She frowned, then shook her head and gave a sad chuckle. "You're too good. My company couldn't keep up with you.
I
